April 2014

April 30, 2014

The latest issue of the Northeast Review (NER), where friend and fellow journalist Sumana Roy works as non-fiction editor, carries a digital artwork of mine depicting the great mountain Kanchenjuna. Sumana has been generous enough to not only use the artwork but use it with her editorial. The NER has a sort of special about the Kanchenjunga which until 1852 was considered the highest mountain on the planet. However, calculations by the Great Trigonometric Survey of India in 1849 were accepted by 1852 to declare Mount Everest, which was until then known as Peak XV, to be the highest. The Kanchenjugna stands at 8,598 meters (28,209 feet) as compared to the 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) for Mt. Everest. That makes Everest about 250 meters higher.

I wrote a sonnet about the mountains. (See below). Admittedly, Shakespeare would not be too pleased with the quality of my sonnet but since I have written it I might as well use it. Sonnets are written in 14 lines and follow a specific rhyme scheme. I have at least adhered to the 14-lines part of it. The rhyming part is clearly labored and not in accordance with sonnets’ rules. I am conscious that I should not consider giving up my current career to become a fulltime sonneteer.

I write this sonnetAs once the highest mountain on the planetYou were then just “Peak XV”And I was your envyThen came 1852When they found youTo be 250 meters tallerThat made me hollerWhy first exalt me?And then salt meIn my wounded prideBut, you are still by my sideAlways in eternal restYou, Mount Everest

April 29, 2014

John Oliver devoted perhaps the longest segment to the Indian election on American television even if it was to mock and deride how American television was not devoting enough time to it. I have firsthand experience of what Oliver means when he says how a news story as obviously epic as human history’s largest electoral exercise hardly found any resonance here. I tried selling some ideas about possible documentaries to the American media as early as last year about the election but found no takers. Forget takers, I did not even get official rejection, although that may have to do with my standing as a journalist.

It seems to me that American broadcasters like the violent frenzy that often attends the birth of a democracy way better than they like the actual democracy. For the past nearly two months, CNN’s news sense has been submerged somewhere in the unfathomable depths of the Indian Ocean. I think Bluefin-21, a submersible on contract to U.S. Navy to search for the Malaysian Airline’s flight MH 370, should simultaneously look for CNN’s sunken credibility.

When it comes to foreign news coverage the American viewers may not have the attention span or the patience for the complexities of the Indian election. However, as Oliver pointed out, the contest can really be distilled down to two individuals Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. I think the contest is down to Narendra Modi versus Narendra Modi. It is between a reinvented Narendra Modi who tries to put on the mature airs of a national leader or a core Narendra Modi who cannot contain his churlish, brass knuckle political impulses.

Oliver memorably described Gandhi as India’s Han Solo. I am glad he did not extend the Star Wars comparison by calling Modi Darth Vader. To Oliver’s point that the Indian election offers enough red meat for the American broadcasters, he has already understood that the red meat they would rather like is the kind bitten off human buttocks by that leopard leaping over roofs in Ballarpur. It keeps their The Jungle Book Bagheera fantasy alive.

Even if eventually only 50% of the eligible voters vote in this election, we are talking about over 400 million people. That number is still larger than the population of any other country except China. One can always get into the deeper debate whether regular elections necessarily mean a functioning democracy but even superficially over 400 million people casting their votes makes for a great news story under any circumstances. As I pointed out some posts ago, even at its birth India’s was the largest democracy in terms of the sheer number of people it took in its fold. One is tempted to say that the American media disregarding Indian elections are in a way a tribute to the sound inevitability of their taking place without any serious challenge but that is not really what it is. It is having to deal with the easily distracted network executives that is the real problem.

That Oliver is a Brit may have played a small role in his theme selection for the premier of his new HBO show. I suppose he has a more natural appreciation of India’s democracy after what his forebears did there for over 150 years.Somewhere along the line the British take credit for setting India up on a democratic path even though that claim may be transparently false. I applaud Oliver for pointing out the follies of the American media in less than 10 minutes and simultaneously flagging the dangers of the Indian broadcast media going in the same mindless direction.

* This rather obvious headline is meant to put all key search words in.

April 28, 2014

Getting reading glasses is an early sign of ageing. Forgetting them in odd places is a definite sign of ageing. Wearing them and still looking for them means it is more or less over for you. I have accomplished all three.

The other day I kept looking for them even while wearing them. It was only a few moments into the search that I realized that I had them on all the time. What this means is several things. One obvious thing is that one has become forgetful. Another obvious thing is that one has become stupid. Perhaps the most damning indictment is that one finds all this rather routine. If I cannot feel a pair of glasses sitting on my face, then it says a lot of about my senses.

Of course, there is an element of exaggeration here to make this post more engaging than it would have been were it only about a middle-aged man forgetting his reading glasses. I forgot them this morning at home. I am writing this post without my reading glasses. I wonder why you need reading glasses to write. Don’t I need writing glasses? (Hehehe, that’s funny, I think).

In Gujarati, the reading glasses are also called “betala” from the number betalis or 42. The popular belief is that when one turns 42, it is almost inevitable that you would need them. Right on cue when I turned 42 I had to get them because I could not read with my regular glasses. I am short-sighted in terms of vision and, I suppose, in any other sense of the word. The reading glasses proved that I was also not even fully short-sighted. I can read font size ten from a distance of about one foot. If I move any further the text begins to seem like a million ants locked in a feverish mating ritual.

I don’t know if you have experienced this but oftentimes I cannot hear well without the glasses. Perhaps it has to do with the two senses—hearing and sight having become so attuned to each other that if one goes out of sync, the other does too. It takes some getting used to.

I can use my regular glasses to write but that would mean I will have to move about 10 feet away from the keyboard. Also, I will have to enlarge the font size to 20 or more. But then, I will still need reading glasses to punch my keyboard. So please applaud the hardship I have undergone to produce this marvelously inane piece.

April 27, 2014

It seems masculine valor, machismo and bravado are quantifiable in precise inches. They add up to a 56 inches; a 56-inch broad chest.

This is the kind of barrel-chestedness that the Indian prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has introduced to the political lexicon. The narrative is testosterone-fueled in league with the folklore about men of inordinate courage shaking the earth while walking that was once popular in the countryside of the northwest Gujarat region of Kathiawad. The bandits of Kathiawad were supposed to be barrel-chested in the folklore I frequently heard while growing up.

A 56-inch chest automatically presumes a large man with a large ribcage, large lungs and therefore extraordinary physical endurance. That is the gladiatorial image Modi has been assiduously selling. In my memory, I cannot find another election campaign where the theme was so frequently cast in such unambiguously male terms. Modi has harped on it so frequently that he gives the impression of overcompensating for a sense of some unknown inadequacy. I half expect to hear Modi mouth that tritely male chauvinistic line from the Manmohan Desai movie ‘Mard’ (Man) that goes “Jo mard hota hai usey dard nahi hota hai, memsaab. (The one who is a man, has no pain, ma’am ).”

I tried to do some quick research about the precise figure of 56 inches and why it is supposed to signify such in-your-face valorousness but could not find anything in particular. I am sure there is a reason why the precise figure has come to denote all that it is supposed to denote. Modi’s obsession with that number has been commented on by others but perhaps it is for the first time that a woman politician (albeit a seasonal politician) has chosen to comment on it. At an election rally in Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, Congress Party member Priyanka Gandhi said, “Yeh Bharat desh hai. Isey chalane ke liye chhappan inch ke seeney ki zaroorat nahi hai, Isey chalane ki liye dariya jaisa dil chahiye.” (This is India. You don’t need a 56-inch chest to run it but you need an ocean-like heart to run it).

The term 56-inch is supposed to lend a certain swagga to those who have it. I presume that Narendra Modi measures up to that swagga because otherwise what would be the point of mentioning it? Perhaps his tailor can enlighten us. Mine is 42 inches and I can barely carry it without my center of gravity going haywire. My stickman legs can barely bear the burden of a 42-inch chest. Obviously, I have no future in the India of Narendra Modi’s imagination. Forget me, Mohandas Gandhi would have no place if the literality of 56 inches was a prerequisite to greatness. You don’t have to tell me that Modi means 56 inches in a metaphorical sense, although it seems he means it in an anatomical sense.

The Indian republic has seen a somnambulant prime minister ( H D Deve Gowda), a self-urine drinking one (Morarji Desai) and a barely spoken one (Manmohan Singh). Perhaps it is getting ready for a barrel-chested one (Narendra Modi) or a barrely-spoken* one.

* Barrely-spoken is not a word but under the circumstances what choice do I have other than manufacturing a pathetic pun?

April 26, 2014

A teaser trailer from an upcoming series of short stories by—who else?—me. Do you get the feeling that I seem to write a lot but nothing seems to be getting out? I do too. I think I should remedy the situation.

It is a well-established tradition among the Indian American community that when many of its members buy a new car, even a used one, they take it to a nearby temple to be ritualized by a priest. It is a form of sanctification that is supposed to herald good luck. I do not have to believe or disbelieve in anything to tell a story about it. I just have to tell a story in as engaging a manner as I am capable of.

The following are just some excerpts to tease you.

Car Puja—Mayank Chhaya

From behind the glass window of my front office, the young man’s face appeared to have broken out into a severe case of acne. As it turned out, it was the smudgy glass window and not his face.

He kept tapping it even as I slid it open.

“Car puja,” he said as if he was uttering something forbidden.

“Pardon me,” I said, not quite catching the drift of what he was saying.

“I want car puja,” he said with a slight, diffident smile.

“To do it or get it done,” I said in a half-hearted attempt at humor.

He smiled and said, “To get it done,” and pointed at his new Toyota van outside sunk in four inches of snow.

“I just bought it last Saturday,” he said rifling through his wallet. He took out his American Express card and said, “I was told 21 dollars.”

I swiped the card and waited for the approval of the charge. During those brief moments he kept smiling not at me but past me, perhaps well past the shores of America, all the way to India to his village in Andhra Pradesh.

“Perkapally,” he said, “It is in Adilabad district.”

“Perkapally, I take it, is the name of your village,” I said.

“Yes yes yes,” he said; the first “yes” in an apologetic one at having presumed that I would automatically know what he was talking about. The last two yeses were meant to applaud my powers of deduction.

“My fust car,” he said with so much pride and sense of accomplishment that I turned and looked at the van again. An inch more snow had fallen by then but the car had acquired a little more gloss. His pride had brushed off on it.

With the charge having been approved I handed him the merchant copy of the receipt that he was supposed to sign. From what I could gather he signed it J A Perkapally.

“I thought Perkapally was the name of your native village,” I said.

“Yes yes yes, both, my name and my village name, same. Very same,” he said.

He withdrew from the window like someone else was pulling him away. He walked a few steps and suddenly prostrated next to the fountain. His toes stretched so hard that one of them tore through his yellow socks. His forearms were also stretched to their limit and ended in his palms tightly joined in namaskar.

I think he had maxed out all his muscles to reach his optimal length. He stayed prostrated for about a minute and then got up. His buttocks sprang up first up as if in recoil and then did the rest of his body like a tightly tied bowstring suddenly snapping. It was like a weird human version of a Jack in the box.

By the time he went out I could barely see the tires of the Toyota. They were almost completely submerged in snow. The white vehicle seemed as if the snow had taken the shape of a van.

April 25, 2014

I did the following for The Indian Diaspora portal which I look after in North America. It is a portal that is in the process of emerging as the most definitive platform addressing the 25 million plus people of Indian origin worldwide.

By Mayank Chhaya

For NASA planetary scientist Ashwin Vasavada, work on average is about 225 million kilometers away.

Sometimes it moves as far as over 400 million kilometers. It is a good thing Dr Vasavada does not have to travel to Mars where NASA’s most ambitious mission to date, the $2.5 billion Curiosity mission is digging rock and soil samples.

With a BS in Geophysics and Space Physics from University of California, Los Angeles and a PhD in Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, Dr Vasavada is now in the midst of what could potentially upend our definitions of life.

As someone engaged in the geologic studies of Mars with regard to surface properties, volatiles, and climate history, he is at the cutting edge of finding out whether Mars ever had or has habitable environments capable of supporting microbial life.

As the Deputy Project Scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission with its Curiosity rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, he helps lead an international team of over 400 scientists.

A son of Gujarati parents, who came to America in the 1950s, Dr Vasavada very nearly chose a career in music over science, but in the end, his parents persuaded him otherwise.

Excerpts from Dr Vasavada's interview with The Indian Diaspora which was done in two parts, one when the Curiosity rover had landed last year and the other last week.

In the past year or so of Curiosity being on Mars, what has been the most exciting find or high?

Early last year, Curiosity determined that Mars once was a habitable planet. It explored the site of an ancient lake, where the water was fresh and abundant, and other chemicals necessary for life were present. Since then, we've spent a year driving toward Mt Sharp, a 5-km high mountain. Along the way we've found more and more evidence for rivers and lakes in the ancient past. Everywhere we look, there are sandstones deposited by flowing water, and pebbles rounded by rolling in streams.

In terms of the eventual colonization Mars, whenever that might happen, how would we look back at the Curiosity and Opportunity missions?

In one sense, we'll look back to Curiosity and Opportunity as the pioneers that preceded us. On Earth, our early explorers were other humans. In our exploration of the solar system, we send robots like Curiosity ahead of us. In another sense, we'll look back at these robots as scientists aiming to understand whether life ever existed on Mars. By the time we colonize Mars, it will be too late. The moment the first human sets down on Mars, we likely will no longer be able to detect traces of Mars life apart from our own contamination.

Have you been following India's Mars mission and, if so, what do you think of its progress so far?

I'm very excited that India will reach Mars in a few months, adding India to the very short list of nations that has explored worlds beyond Earth. It's a great achievement already. I wish India a great success and I hope the US and India can collaborate in the future.

Do you see any possibilities of spending any time on India's Mars mission out of professional curiosity?

I will certainly follow the mission with great interest and look forward to its discoveries! There are days where our control room at NASA-JPL is filled with Indian Americans like myself. In that sense, India is already on Mars!

There are days where our control room at NASA-JPL is filled with Indian Americans like myself. In that sense, India is already on Mars!

Did Mars specifically figure in your childhood imagination or fantasy? If so, tell me a little about it?

I've been fascinated by the planets since I was a child. I would often stare at pictures of Mars and Jupiter taken by early robotic spacecraft, and be amazed that these probes took pictures of landscapes that no human had ever seen. Pictures from spacecraft that landed on Mars' surface were especially captivating to me, since they were taken from eye level, just as if I was there, standing on another world.

Did you grow up with a career path clearly laid out in your mind?

I grew up with two alternate goals: to be involved in space exploration, and to be a musician. I wandered back and forth between them, and tried to pursue both in college. But I think my parents eventually won, and convinced me to pursue science.

What drew you to geophysics and planetary science, not the two most preferred career choices for the Indian American community?

Growing up in the USA of the 1980s, space exploration was an inspiration. There's a whole generation of scientists and engineers who were inspired by the Space Shuttle, and the exploration of the Moon and planets. At the same time, perhaps growing up in a smaller town with few other Indian Americans allowed me to consider other career options than just medicine! Honestly, I follow my own Indian father's tradition. He didn't become a doctor like his own father.

Was there anything in your upbringing that may have prepared you for what you have eventually become?

It goes without saying that the strong emphasis on education played a big part. My parents are both immigrants, and these values of education and working hard through college are shared by many immigrants and their children.

Is it logical to assume that given the choice of your studies, NASA would have been your early choice as the center of your career?Given my specific desire to explore the planets, NASA was the only choice.

When did Mars begin to emerge as an important part of your career?

Planetary scientists can work in laboratories or in theory, but the real fun is when you become part of an ongoing mission to another planet or moon. My first chance came in graduate school, when I was accepted at Caltech to join a professor and work on the next mission to Mars. The day I drove down to Pasadena to start, the spacecraft was lost when it failed to enter Mars' orbit. Even though I was set on studying Mars, I couldn't stand the thought of not working on an active mission. So I wrote a thesis on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and then went back to Mars after graduate school.

I believe it has been eight years since you have been involved in the Curiosity mission. Was it difficult to sustain enthusiasm during this long gestation period?

I began working on Curiosity in March 2004. Amazingly, there has never been a dull moment. There certainly is a lot of waiting for the payoff. But every step is challenging and interesting, from selecting the payload, designing the spacecraft, testing and rehearsing operations, launching, landing, and of course exploring Mars.

The whole Curiosity mission is such a coming together of mind-bogglingly complex technologies. What are the challenges of being a team member on such a mission?

One challenge is simply to have faith in the endeavor. Our success rate at Mars is about 50%, yet one dedicates a good decade of one's life to each effort. With Curiosity, we knew we were taking several different risks: a much larger and heavier rover, a new landing system, and an incredibly complex payload. Any one of these could spell doom in an instant, not to mention just simple bad luck. We all come to work each day doing our best to ensure the success of the mission, and with a certain amount of humility, asking colleagues to double check our work.

There are days where our control room at NASA-JPL is filled with Indian Americans like myself. In that sense, India is already on Mars!

Your work began after all the thrill of Curiosity’s long journey and extraordinary landing had probably worn off. Is it difficult to stay focused on what is arguably the key, albeit, tedious part of the mission?

I think it gets tedious for some of the engineers who find their challenge and satisfaction in the design, testing, and landing. But for the scientists, every day now brings new discoveries. Our payload is working so fantastically well; it's such a great reward for all of the work in the last several years.

Describe to me your typical day on the mission?

We receive data from the spacecraft each day around 8 am. We quickly review the data to understand the health of the rover and instruments, and look for any quick scientific results that might determine what we do next. By 10 am, we have a set of preliminary plans for the next day on Mars.

A few dozen scientists on duty will then meet with an equal number of engineers, and assemble the final plans, balancing the science requests with the capabilities and resources (like power and data downlink) on the rover. From noon until the evening these plans are checked, double-checked, and turned into the encoded commands to be transmitted. The commands are sent, we go to sleep, and the rover wakes up on Mars to do those activities.

What are the highs and lows of your typical day?

The highs are certainly the moment every morning where we see new pictures and hear the shouts of our team members as they realize they've made new discoveries. We have little celebrations nearly every day. The lows are when something we planned failed to work on Mars, either because we made a mistake or the rover had a problem. Of course part of my job is managing a group of highly talented, ambitious, and sometimes stressed scientists, so there can be some 'people issues' to work through as well.

You are an important part of a team that will determine whether Mars ever had or can have conditions suitable for life. Tell us about what it feels to look at the basic chemical structure of the Martian soil and rock samples?

Since the early days of planetary exploration, there's been a saying that no matter what we plan on these robotic missions, we will always be surprised. It's amazing that after 50 years of exploring Mars, we still are surprised. This mission is by far the most carefully planned robotic mission in the history of NASA. We used incredible amounts of data from previous missions to choose our landing site and develop very specific ideas to test with our payload. Yet every time we process a sample, we wait nervously for the results, knowing that there's a good chance we will discover something we couldn't even imagine before.

What are the possibilities that Curiosity might have carried microbial contamination with it which may unwittingly get planted on Mars?

We know we took a small amount of contamination with us to Mars; it's almost impossible not to. We just hope that it's about what we expect, since our experiments are designed to cope with that amount. We have had some unpleasant surprises, realizing that our drill was contaminating samples more than we thought, and realizing that we brought some Florida air with us (during the launch) that contaminated some air samples. But our team has found ways to work around these problems.

How conscious are you and your colleagues that in the event any form of life is found on Mars would have a profoundly altering impact on what has forever been an anthropocentric world?

I think all of our team is aware of the very fundamental questions we are addressing on this mission. But many Mars scientists are also quite sober about the chances of finding evidence of life on Mars or other places in the solar system. Whether or not we find evidence of life, Curiosity is designed to learn a great deal about the capability of Mars to support life. That is a big step toward a scientific understanding of potential life in the universe. How aware do you think the Mars team that what you do has the potential to completely upend our terrestrial hubris about who we are?

I suspect we're all too caught up in the long and stressful hours of operating this rover to dwell on this too much. But there are moments, such as seeing the rocket leave Earth, where you suddenly realize what you're doing. I watched that rocket get smaller and smaller, all of a sudden feeling smaller and smaller myself.

Do you see yourself as a space traveler who may someday be on the surface of Mars scooping up samples?

Not really. Partly this is just being realistic; I'm not sure when we'll ever get there with humans. For now, Curiosity is a great virtual presence.

How aware were you of the rather influential position that Mars has been accorded in Indian astrology and the laughable role it plays in determining marriages?

Honestly, not very. Growing up in America, and being a scientist, I don't think a lot about astrology.

Which part of India does your family originally come from?

My family is Gujarati.

Does your heritage in any way inform your profession?

Probably most significantly in the Indian values that brought me to this career level. One wonderful result of this mission has been a rediscovery of my heritage. I've received many emails from Indians around the world who have seen my name on this mission. And I've had the chance to talk with several Indian journalists and with Indian college students. It makes me proud to feel that I can represent Indians and Indian Americans in this way.

April 24, 2014

Life is not neutral. So why should the Internet be? That is certainly one way to look at the question of net neutrality. However, a more mature way to look at the debate would be to say that precisely because life is not neutral, the Internet ought to be. Trust me to turn everything into a larger philosophical discussion. There was no need bring in life into the current debate over net neutrality.

With both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reporting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) might be getting ready with new rules that effectively end net neutrality as we know it, the debate has revived. For those of you who may not keep up with such subjects, net neutrality ensures that you as a consumer get to access whatever content you like without your service provider meddling in how fast you can get to it. So far FCC rules generally do not allow internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast or Verizon to offer a faster or preferential access to content creators who are willing to pay more. In other words, theoretically you should be able to get to this stupid little blog with as much ease as you might the Times or the Journal. That could change if the reporting by that very Times and Journal is any indication.

Net neutrality, which means ISPs cannot discriminate where you get faster because some content creator has paid them more money, is seen as the fundamental reason for such an explosive growth of creativity and freedom on the Internet. With the potential new FCC rules, it could mean that the moneybags may be able to muscle the no-moneybags out. Stratification on the basis of what a consumer pays is the norm in many industries. A lot of us have experienced the distinction being a cattle class air traveler, which I am, and business class or first class traveler, which I never will be. But at least in air travel, while the trimmings and comfort level may be decidedly superior in the first or business class to the economy, the plane’s speed remains the same for everyone. It is not as if the first class passengers get faster to Singapore, followed by the business class and finally, if at all, the coach passengers. There is no discrimination or distinction on who reaches faster. Of course, there is distinction on who deplanes faster—the first class, the business class and then the wretched like you and I. So there is staggered discrimination in many industries.

If net neutrality rules change, from the way I understand there is a theoretical possibility that bandwidth-heavy content providers such as Netflix or Google or Amazon and so on could strike deals with ISPs such as Comcast whereby they get preferential access for a higher fee. That higher fee will naturally be transferred to you and I. Where it differs from the airline example is that the speeds of access and the ease of access could be different for different people. Ardent advocates of net neutrality argue that all net traffic should be treated equally. Period. The new rules could make that more conditional.

News reports suggest that the FCC would require that while ISPs can create a preferential pipeline, they cannot block or slow down access or loading of websites that do not pay ISPs a higher fee. I am curious to see how this form of institutionalized discrimination is achieved. It sounds like the airline model to me. ISPs are already offering different speeds for different fees. Why not keep a net neutral majority landscape where all sites, including the preferred ones can be accessed with equal but comparatively slow speed, and then also offer a faster, more preferred landscape for a higher fee? Add an extra layer on top of the existing net neutral landscape as it exists today. I don’t know if this makes any sense but to me it does.

Net neutrality does not sound like a matter of life and death for most of the humanity right now. However as broadband becomes more widespread, the humanity will begin to experience discrimination in one more sphere of life. So life may not be neutral but it ought to be in some places at least.

April 23, 2014

Indian elections are the best time to test the limits of free speech. Restraint evaporates in the heat of campaigning and politicians mouth extreme non-sense. One such politician is Giriraj Singh, a nominee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the state of Jharkhand. An arrest warrant has been issued against Singh for essentially suggesting that those oppose his party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi are supporters of Pakistan and they should perhaps be banished to that country.

I am not sure if Singh’s comments rise to the level where he should be arrested for harboring and expressing what is regarded by India’s Election Commission “ highly inflammatory” views. Are those “highly inflammatory” views? Probably but they are just views. The Election Commission, which monitors all public conduct of politicians during the election time, has said allowing Singh to continue to hold public rallies “will have the effect of prejudicially affecting the public tranquility and law and order.” That is a tricky assertion to challenge because it is fairly common that public rallies degenerate into law and order problem in India at the slightest provocation. Oftentimes, it takes much less than what Singh has said to incite violence. So I remain conflicted.

A petition seeking Singh’s arrest was filed in a court in Bokaro by police and an arrest warrant issued promptly against him. As inflammatory speeches go what Singh said was close to being one but it was still only a speech. Its content was highly deplorable and symptomatic of a bigoted mind. That still does not add up to an arrest in my book. Politicians like Singh abound in India and the BJP seems to particularly attract them. There is a reason why Singh and his ilk feel encouraged to spout such intolerance of dissent. The party has been known not to seriously challenge such utterances within its ranks. Of course, it has glibly explained it away calling it interparty democracy and freedom of views. For once though the BJP has acted tough and reprimanded Singh and the leadership, including Modi himself, has explicitly distanced itself from him. To that extent it has done its bit.

However, the larger question of the freedom of speech still remains. While recognizing that that right is not absolute, one must also question whether Singh’s comments are such that they call for his arrest. As I said, I am not sure if that is the case.

My concern is equally about the logistics of Pakistan being able to handle such a large scale banishment if it were indeed to take place. There are massive numbers of legions of Modi opponents and detractors just as there are as many of his supporters. Notwithstanding its well-known hospitality, Pakistan does not have the wherewithal to host so many banished Indians. It is just not practical. So let us reach accommodation here. Giriraj Singh and those who subscribe to his ridiculous views can call the areas of India where Modi’s opponents live “mini-Pakistan”.

April 22, 2014

Smart politicians look at life from the prism of political expediency. For instance, if it is politically expedient to strike a reasonable and tolerant tone, a smart politician would do so unhesitatingly. In clearly distancing himself from the lunatic fringes of the extended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) family, Narendra Modi is practicing what is politic. Once you get past the inherent cynicism of practicing what is politic, you recognize that in realpolitik expediency is a much greater moderating force than any personal convictions. As long as what is politic is also what is right for the larger good, we are all in a happy place. When that ceases to be the case, we are potentially screwed.

It is in this context that I once again mention, like I did yesterday, the power of the profound complexities of governing India to keep extreme political ideologies and their practitioners in check. Those complexities have generally ensured that politicians by and large practice what is politic and, in this case, being reasonable and tolerant is being politic. It has long been my case that the critical mass of the Indian populace will generally remain centrist moderates with tolerance and acceptance of all as their defining feature. I hope I am not being too optimistic.

In a span of a few days, two men, both representing extreme views within the BJP’s extended Hindu nationalist family expressed views which are clearly damaging to Modi. Giriraj Singh, a BJP colleague who is contesting the parliamentary election from Bihar, was quoted as saying that those who oppose Modi should be banished to Pakistan. Dr. Pravin Togadia, who is a cancer specialist by profession but president of the extremely rightwing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or the World Hindu Council, was alleged to have suggested during a speech in Gujarat that Muslims should be prevented from buying properties in Hindu neighborhoods. These positions are both seriously damaging to Modi’s prospects, especially among those Indian voters who might be willing to consider his candidacy on the basis of his much touted pro-economic development agenda. That is a sizable number and Modi is in a phase of his political evolution where he cannot afford to disregard any potential voter.

Modi, who is generally not known to stand in the way of such extreme assertions by his party’s lunatic fringes, felt compelled to say this: "Petty statements by those claiming to be (the) BJP's well wishers are deviating the campaign from the issues of development and good governance.” That was in reference to Dr. Togadia’s alleged comments. Without naming anyone, Modi said, "I disapprove any such irresponsible statement and appeal to those making them to kindly refrain from doing so."

In an interview to the ABP news channel, Modi said in reference to Giriraj Singh’s statement: "Nobody can support Giriraj Singh's statement.I had said in Maninagar (a suburb of Ahmedabad city) in 2002 that my government will be of the people - for those who voted for me, for those who did not vote for me and even for those who did not vote at all," he said. "Abhayam, abhayam, abhayam (Absence of fear). There, I have said it three times. There is no need to be scared," he said.

Modi understands that while it may be marginally advantageous to campaign from extreme positions to keep the base of his party happy, in the long-run and even as an enduring political strategy he must campaign from the center. That is what I mean by expedient reasonableness or tolerance. That is practicing what is politic. As long as India’s natural moderation remains the bedrock of its polity, it will also remain politic for politicians such as Modi and anyone else to remain committed to it.

In this broad context, I reproduce below a handwritten reply that the BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani gave me in 1992. I had to send a written question after over an hour-long interview with him about various issues. I could not raise this specific question because we had run out of time. Twenty two years hence what was politic then remains politic now.

BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani’s handwritten reply in 1992

For your benefit, he said,

“The Indian Constitution guarantees equality and justice to all citizens, irrespective of their faith.

The BJP holds that this commitment of our constitution makers is a commitment of the nation. Anything else would be contrary to our history, tradition and culture.

The BJP rejects theocracy. In India we can never have Class I citizens and Class II citizens as you have in Pakistan and several Islamic countries.”

My question to him was: “ Dear Mr. Advani, Since you seem pressed for time I would not persist with raising the remaining questions but I would appreciate if you could answer just one question.

Q: In the event of the BJP coming to power, what will be the status of the 200 million odd non-Hindus?”

April 21, 2014

The rise of Narendra Modi has also led to excessive intellectualizing of his emergence by many scholarly commentators. Although many of these commentaries make a compelling case, they seem to use Modi as a host to embed a variety of socio-political projections and fantasies taking birth in the minds of the commentators themselves. As simultaneously India’s most reviled and most revered politician, Modi sure makes a tempting target for the commentariat. However, what is written about him is done with such knowing certitude that I wonder whether the commentators are merely treating his person as a socio-political laboratory.

If there is a common underlying theme to many of these commentaries, it is that Narendra Modi had had his life meticulously charted and calculated to the smallest detail before he took to politics. In their telling, Modi has been working to a brilliantly laid out plan, right down to his sartorial evolution and hair transplant. The only problem with this approach is that it almost deliberately discounts and disregards the vagaries and unpredictability of a politician’s life. A demagogue, which Modi clearly is, can influence and shape his constituency to a certain extent but demagoguery goes only so far. I would argue that chance plays as much role, if not a greater role, as a calibrated plan.

In the process of offering incisive analyses many commentators end up attributing to Modi qualities that simply do not exist. Political evolution of any public figure is always attended by many variables that demand that the public figure has to make up strategies and tactics as they go along. There are no behavioral certainties that a politician, even an astute one like Modi, can anticipate and control. In these narratives, the electorate is treated as a highly malleable lump of clay that a crafty politician like Modi can model according to his personal predilections and prejudices.

While it is possible to affect broad trends through repeated and forceful assertions of partially ideological and partially self-centered convictions, I seriously doubt if the electorate of India’s size, 814.5 million in this election, and diversity so easily lends itself to the fiendishly manipulative impulses of one man, even if that one man happens to be Narendra Modi. In saying this I may also run the risk of perhaps overstating the innate intelligence and sense of right and wrong of the average voter. But I would rather err on the side of the collective intelligence of the electorate than the power of a single individual to mesmerize the masses. A day after the 125th anniversary of precisely one such individual this may be a bold claim to make but I will go there anyway.

Attached to this excessive intellectualizing of someone who is essentially a garden variety demagogue is the dire forecast of what might come to pass were India to hand Narendra Modi a decisive verdict. Apocalyptic visions are being offered as a consequence of his rise as prime minister. I am dubious about such forecasts not even remotely because I have any faith in a politician like Modi’s ability to find light but because of my understanding of the profound complexities of governing India from Delhi. That coupled with Modi’s own selfishly expedient politics should act as a powerful inhibitor against him inflicting the kind of socio-cultural and economic damage his rise is feared by many to herald. Before Narendra Modi, there was Indira Gandhi who too had massive delusions of grandeur about herself. She might have been able to grab a lot of power by imposing an emergency rule but in the end the more powerful countervailing force that the complex Indian electorate is did sober her up. Modi is smart enough to remember what can happen to a despot drunk on power.

It might be foolish to bank upon the complexities of governing India as a strategy to keep in check someone as driven as Narendra Modi. However, in the event that a substantial part of the country’s electorate hands him a reasonable amount of parliamentary strength, one can only depend on the complexities of governing India as a possible counter along with the naturally rebellious instincts of those who could get steamrolled by his administration.